Dr. Taylor Priest
Dr. Taylor Priest
Staff of Professorship for Microbiome Research
Additional information
Education & Professional training
July 2024 – Present; NOMIS-ETH Postdoctoral Fellow,
Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Institute of Microbiology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
July 2023 – June 2024; Postdoctoral researcher,
Institute of Microbiology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
December 2022 – June 2023; Postdoctoral researcher,
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology/University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
April 2019 – December 2022; PhD in Marine Microbial Ecology,
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology/University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Thesis title;
‘Molecular ecological characterization of high-latitude bacterioplankton’
- Thesis supervised by PD. Dr. Bernhard M. Fuchs
October 2017 – March 2019; MSc Marine Microbiology
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology/University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Thesis title:
‘Investigating fungal community dynamics through a coastal spring algal bloom’
September 2014 – July 2017; BSc Marine Biology & Oceanography
Plymouth University, Plymouth, UK
Awards/Grants
NOMIS-ETH Postdoctoral Fellowship. 2024-
FEMS Microbiology Ecology Lecture Prize. 9th International Conference on Polar and Alpine Microbiology, Potsdam, Germany, 2022
MARMIC teaching excellence award. International Max Planck Research School for Marine Microbiology. 2021 - 2022
Presentation of research
- Poster: Gordon Research Conference of Marine Microbes (2024), Switzerland.
- Poster: ISME19 Conference (2024), Cape Town, South Africa.
- Invited speaker: PacBio Day (2022), Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands
- Poster: ISME18 Conference (2022), Lausanne, Switzerland
- Speaker: Polar Microbes Symposium (2022), Tvårminne, Finland
- Speaker: International Conference of Polar and Alpine Microbiology (2022), Potsdam, Germany
- Invited speaker: Seminar at University of Oldenburg (2022). Oldenburg, Germany
- Invited speaker: Virtual PacBio Day at EMBL (2022)
- Invited speaker: PacBio Global Virtual User Meeting (2021)
Publications
Priest, T., Oldenburg, E., Popa, O., Dede, B., Metfies, K., von Appen, W., Torres-Valdes, S., Bienhold, C., Fuchs, B. M., Amann, R., Boetius, A., Wietz, M., (2024). Seasonal recurrence and modular assembly of an Arctic pelagic marine microbiome. BioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.05.10.593482 (Accepted in Nature Communications)
Wietz, M., Engel, A., Ramondenc, S., Niwano, M., Von Appen, W.-J., Priest, T., von Jackowski, A., Metfies, K., Bienhold, C., Boetius, A., (2023) . The Arctic summer microbiome across Fram Strait: depth, region and substrates structure microbial diversity in the euphotic zone. Env. Microbiol. https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.16568
Priest, T., Vidal-Melgosa, S., Hehemann, J.-H., Amann, R., Fuchs, B., (2023). Spatial heterogeneity in carbohydrates and their utilisation by microbial communities in the high North Atlantic. ISME Commun. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43705-023-00324-7
Priest, T., Von Appen, J.-W., Oldenburg, E., Popa, Ovidiu, Torres-Valdés, S., Bienhold, C., Metfies, K., Fuchs, B. M., Amann, R., Boetius, A., Wietz, M., (2022). Variations in Atlantic water influx and sea ice cover drive taxonomic and functional shifts in Arctic marine bacterial communities. ISME J. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-023-01461-6
Dede, B., Priest, T., Bach, W., Amann, R., Walter, M., Meyerdieks, A., (2022). High abundance of hydrocarbon-degrading Alcanivorax in plumes of hydrothermally active volcanoes in the South Pacific Ocean. ISME J. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-023-01366-4
Vidal-Melgosa, S., Lagator, M., Sichert, A., Priest, T., Pätzold, J., Hehemann, J.-H., (2022). Not digested: algal glycans move carbon dioxide into the deep-sea. BioXriv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.04.483023(Under review)
Priest, T., Heins, A., Harder, J., Amann, R., Fuchs, B. M., (2022). Niche partitioning of the ubiquitous and ecologically relevant NS5 marine group. ISME J.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-022-01209-8
Priest, T., Orellana, L. H., Huettel, B., Fuchs, B. M., Amann, R., (2021). Microbial metagenome-assembled genomes of the Fram Strait from short and long read sequencing platforms. PeerJ. 9:e11721.https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11721
Priest, T., Fuchs, B., Amann, R., Reich, M., (2021). Diversity and biomass dynamics of unicellular marine fungi during a spring phytoplankton bloom. Env Microbiol. 23(1):448-463. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11721
vertical_align_bottomCV PDFAdditional information
My research is centred around understanding the diversity and eco-evolutionary dynamics of microorganisms across Earth's diverse ecosystems. Some of the key questions that inspire my research and guide my investigations include:
1) What is the diversity of microbial life across Earth’s diverse ecosystems and what are the processes that structure diversity over space and time?
2) What are the physiological and molecular adaptations that distinguish ecologically distinct microbes?
3) What are the ecological or evolutionary drivers of adaptation and diversification?